MSI
U-505 World War II Submarine- the story, the move and since

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Museum
of Science and Industry honored the 70th anniversary (June 4, 2015) of the capture
of the German submarine U-505 in the Atlantic June 4, 1944 (and coincidently
10 years since the move to a permanent indoor exhibit space) by receiving and
honoring the surviving members of the capture team and persons who served on
the involved U.S. Navy vessels. Full
articles were published in the June 5 2014 issues ofd the Sun-Times and the
Tribune.

The
restored sub and its mammoth exhibit are spectacular, broad-based and moving,
even sobering. There
was a very nice party for the neighborhood on June 5 2005 ahead of the public
opening.

There
was a private opening ceremony on June 4, 2005, the 61st anniversary of the
sub's capture off the coast of Africa in 1944. 100 veterans of the Second World
War and Germans were present. They have been involved in the project since before
its inception.

"The
U-505 is a symbol of what the Museum does best," said David Mosena, Museum
of Science and Industry president and CEO, in a November 13, 2003 press release.
"We present unforgettable educational experiences that are one-of-a-kind.
But, most of all, the submarine is an important part of our world history
and a rare example of naval technology. We are committed to its preservation
for years to come."

At
an April 5, 2004 news conference, Museum of Science and Industry president David
Mosena donned hard hat and explained minutia of preparations to move the stabilized
U-505 ever so slowly and carefully and by circuitous route around the east end
of the Museum to a new underground exhibit area. The viewing deck will open
with a special event for donors and notables on Thursday, April 8. We hope to
have pictures up soon after the move starts.

One
of the prize exhibits of the Museum of Science and Industry is a German World
War II submarine, U-505, the only such sub captured by the Allies, precariously
towed to the U.S. and, after rotting at port for ten years, brought through
Lake Michigan, across Lake Shore Drive, and parked outside the east pavilion
of the Museum of Science and Industry. Recognized as a National Historic Landmark
in 1989, the elements, vandals, and a constant stream of visitors with their
breath and tread in the tight quarters have taken a toll. Several organizations,
including veterans, have worked with the Museum to raise the funds to construct
a new permanent underground facility northeast of the museum. State and federal
funding were key elements, as well as Chicago Plan Commission approval of the
move, amongst a suite of museum concepts approved in 1995.

The move of this
880-metric-ton (700 English tons) "artifact" required very thoughtful
planning. Impact on the lawn panels will in the end be minimal, except stairs
from emergency exits. The structure has a tunnel under a new Museum Drive moved
closer to the building. And the construction is tightly placed and articulated
in conjunction with the museum parking garage, the current building (shored
up with concrete footings in the 1920's), the 57th underpass and Lake Shore
Drive (then still under reconstruction), and drainage/electrical infrastructure.
The structure is 40 feet deep. The east drive was subsequently straightened
and located between the new building and the museum.

The submarine
was buttressed and reinforced (temporarily and permanently), then shifted to
a 26-wheel trailer. It was moved over about three days (high wind stalled it
out a bit longer) sometime April, 2004. It was moved on a set of giant wheel/dollies,
independently motorized and movable, much as containers and ships are moved
at ports. The turning radii are tight, including a three-point turn. Columbia
Basin and the ancient oak grove southeast of it were not impacted. Several small
to medium sized trees will were removed, some just for the time of the move,
and the large metal fence at the former railroad exhibit were temporarily removed.

To lower
the sub, it
was rolled onto giant I-beams then the wheels removed. The pit had giant steel
construction towers counter tensioned with cables. Inside each tower were a
tower of wooden blocks, to be removed a few at a time for lowering in stages,
a total of six feet an hour. The pit is 40 feet deep.

Museum Vice President
Joel Asprooth says, "It is an artifact, and we are concerned that it remain
in the same condition at the end of the move as when we started." Lowering
the sub into its "pen" took little more than a day.

The Sub undertook several journeys after its capture off Africa
June 4, 1944: Towed to Bermuda. Towed to dock at Portsmouth, NH with trips to
several eastern cities after the war ended in Europe (to sell war bonds to defeat
Japan). In 1954 Towed up the St. Lawrence and 4 of the 5 Great Lakes to Chicago,
then on rail-skids across 57th beach and Lake Shore Drive. Iconic picturs included
the sub resting near the beach in the water (a blowup can be seen in Clarke's
Diner on 53rd Street) and of the sub on the Drive. Exact date of the Sub move
over Lake Shore Drive Drive closed evening of Sept. 2) was September 6, 1954
(thanks to Sam Guard for tracking this down). It was quite an engineering feat
to create a roll bar et al system so that neither the sub nor the pavement were
crushed. And it took about a week to maneuver the sub into its "bay"
by the trains on the east side of the Museum (c. 800 ft from the lake to the
Museum). An extension from the Museum gave access in such a way as you believed
the sub was inside. A favorite of tours was viewing the lake and skyline through
the periscope.
In 2004 it was moved on giant wheels 2000 feet around the museum, positioned,
then lowered on giant jacks 40 feet into its exhibit then carefully rotated
to a balanced rest on piers.

Quick
sub description as distributed by the Museum. Orig.
from Bruce LaFontaine, Submarines and Underwater Exploration. (This is a vast
story that has to be digested bit by bit in the giant exhibit and cannot be
given in detail here. Note that several components were retrofited with advanced
models during the war.)

Early World War
II Type VII German Submarine, 1939 (However, this site has received a text message
in July 2007 from M M Thomas that the correct Type is IXC.)

With the advent
of World War II in 1939, submarine technology accelerated rapidly. Wartime needs
caused tremendous expenditures, research, and development in all areas of science
and industry. The German "Kriegsmarine" (war navy) developed a large
fleet of fast and capable ocean-going submarines for their war of aggression.

The workhorses
of this fleet during the first few years of the war were the Type VII U-boats.
First launched in 1936, numerous models of t he Type VII saw extensive combat
during the war years. They became a serious threat to the warships and merchant
vessels for the Allied powers crossing the Atlantic. As weapons, troops, and
other war materiel critical to the war effort were transported by sea from the
United States to Great Britain, German submarines prowled undersea in multiple-boat
"Wolf packs," taking a huge toll of hundreds of sunken Allied ships.

The Type VII submarines
were 221-feet long, twenty-one fet wide, and displaced 770 tons. They were powered
by diesel engines and [when not on the surface] electric motors driving twin
stern screws. Top speed was seventeen knots on the surface and eight knots submerged.
They could reach a depth of 350 feet. The boat's deck armament consisted of
an eighty-eight millimeter gun and four twenty-millimeter anti-aircraft guns.
The Type VII had five torpedo tubes, four in the bow and one stern-mounted.
They normally carried between eleven and fifteen torpedoes on a combat patrol.
Over 700 Type VII submarines were constructed during the war years.

In 1943 the Allies
were just starting to turn the tide in the war on U-boats. Captain Gallery,
a Chicago native who had directed bases using aircraft to track and sink U-boats
with increasing success, was put in charge of a special naval convoy, Task Force
22.3, a hunt-and-kill mission against U-boats armed with advanced radar and
other technology and led by the Guadalcanal. Watching the destruction of U-515,
Gallery became convinced he could capture a U-boat so its invaluable code and
technical details could be used against the Germans.

The Navy already
had a division of WAVES designated the 10th Fleet working with "Bombe"
machines (early computers) to continue the work of breaking the Enigma Code
as well as to track submarines. Without their work, the U-505 would never have
been found, let alone been useful. During spring 1944 this sub was in the Task
Force's sights off Africa, but by early June was not pinpointed. The hunt was
being aborted due to lack of fuel when the Chatelain detected it with radar
and a plane sighted it and strafed the water to mark the spot. Then, as the
race to reach U-505 started, a bombardment was undertaken with enough firepower
to force 505 to surface and terrorize the crew into abandoning it but not enough
to destroy or even seriously damage it. The capture, prevention of sinking or
self-destruct, and salvage involved a combination of amazing bravery and skill
with almost impossible luck or providence again and again. Let the exhibit tell
you that story. Incredibly, the secret capture remained a secret until after
the fall of Germany.

Incidentally,
there was only one loss of life, one of the German crew of 59. The prisoners
were held in Louisiana (and did try to get the word out), their families being
informed by the Germans that the crew must be presumed dead. In later 1945,
the families were informed of the truth and the last German was repatriated
in 1947. In 1964, by-now-Admiral Gallery and U-505 Captain Lange conducted a
taped interview at the sub in the Museum. Top

U-505
going underground

Hyde Park Herald,
November 26, 2003. By Maurice Lee

The "U"
in the name of the Museum of Science and Industry's premier attraction will
shortly stand for "underground" as the museum sails the historic boat
into a new climate-controlled sub house be[ing] constructed underneath its front
lawn.

Sunday morning
June 4, 1944, in a wild combination of careful planning, chutzpah and blind
luck, a American carrier task force, led by Chicagoan Captain Daniel V. Gallery,
captured the German U-505 submarine, the first vessel captured in battle by
the U.S. since the War of 1812. After a frenetic battle, during which destroyers
salted the Nazi submarine with depth charges, the Navy captured the U-505 after
a 26-year-old Seaman First Class named Zenon Lukosius boarded the sinking boat
and shut off a scuttling valve flooding it with sea water.

Since 1954, the
historic vessel—the only "unterseeboot" or U-Boat in the U.S.
and one of only five left in the world—has been a part of the permanent
collection of the Museum of Science and Industry, 5700 S. Lake Shore Dr., and
stored outside near the Columbia Basin. The number one exhibit at the museum,
the U-505 has played host to more than 24 million visitors in its nearly 50
years in residence. But the extreme fluctuations of the Chicago temperature
and humidity have taken their toll on the national landmark in the form of a
creeping rust grinding the ste[e]l-hulled U-Boat to dust.

The museum's mission,
according to museum President David Mosena, is simple. "It is our duty
to ensure that this artifact survives," proclaimed Mosena.

To save the boat,
the museum has embarked on a $35 million project to get it out of the weather.
Planning began on the project in 1999 and th museum has already raised more
th[a]n $24 million, much of it through individual donations.

The new sub house
will feature 35,000 square feet of exhibit space laid out around the U-505.
Patrons will enter the sub house through an underground tunnel connecting from
the museum's East Pavilion and walk around the sub on a fully handicap accessible
ramp descending to the exhibit floor. Museum Vice-President of Exhibits and
Collections Kurt Haunfelner said the project will result in a "dramatic
new exhibit" where visitors will get up close to the submarine. "Visitors
will be able to view the boat in its entirely from six feet away," said
Haunfelner.

The project, underway
since last spring, is currently on schedule and set to open in the spring of
2005. U-505 will close to the public Jan. 4, 2004 and remain closed for more
than a year. This winter the submarine will be prepped for the move to its new
home between March and April. The Herald reported in September that
in order to achieve the move, the museum's contractor will first buttress the
structural weak points in the submarine with both a temporary and permanent
reinforcements and then shift the sub to a 26-wheel trailer and roll it to the
front of the museum.

After the sub
is rolled out of the museum, it will turn and back out onto Science Drive. The
sub will then make a three-point turn and run north along columbia Drive to
its destination, where it will be lowered into the housing. Once the submarine
is installed, crews will then pour a concrete roof over the sub house and replace
the lawn section. The 2,000-foot trip to the sub's new home is expected to take
about three or four days.

Battered
sub heading to underground shelter

Chicago Tribune,
November 14, 2003. By James Janega

When the World
War II German submarine U-505 last went under way, tugboats pulled it from a
port in New Hampshire to Chicago, taking a month in 1954 to travel 3,000 miles
through the St. Lawrence Seaway and across the Great Lakes, at a cost of $250,000.

Next year, the
Museum of Science and Industry will move the submarine a quarter of a mile over
six weeks, then lower it into a new $35 million underground building, where
it will remain on exhibit. The new 35,000-square-foot building will give museum
patrons a chance not only to tour the submarine—as they could at its current
location—but also allow them to walk above, under and around the sub,
so close they can almost touch its pitted steel plating.

Interactive exhibits
will be alongside, enabling visitors to peer through periscopes, pilot a virtual
submarine and exchange and decode messages with other patrons on Enigma code
machines like the one captured on the U-505 on June 4, 1944. "One will
immediately be able to feel the dramatic scale and impact of the boat itself
. For the first time ever, guests can view the boat in its entirety," said
Kurt Haunfelner, the museum's vice president of exhibitions and collections.
"In our new facility, you'll be able to walk up right to the hull."

Making that experience
possible has taken since 1997, when planning got underway for what appeared
to be an $11.5 million project. Since then, the expected cost has risen to a
projected $35 million, said museum President and CEO David Mosena.

The U-505 was
launched from Hamburg, Germany, in 1941 and served in the North Atlantic, where
U-boats had an average three-month life expectancy, said U-505 curator Keith
Gill. Though German crew members considered the U-505 a lucky ship because it
was never sunk in wartime, its engineers never had Chicago's brutal winters
and torturous summer humidity in mind when they built it.

"It's fading
quickly," said Mosena. Because the boat is heated for tours during the
winter months, condensation freezes on the bulkheads during cold weather, with
predictable results, he said. "The boat is literally rusting from within."
White paint chips in the control room flutter in the artificial breeze of heating
fans. Steel near the aft torpedo tubes is s brittle as corn flakes.

"Most of
the problems that we're facing today actually started in 1946," Gill said.
That was when the U.S. Navy stuck the U-505 in a storage pen in Portsmouth,
N.H., and let it rot at the waterline next to other German subs seized at the
end of the war. They expected to scrap it once they had learned all they could
from the ship.

The Museum of
Science and Industry, along with Daniel V. Gallery, a Chicagoan and captain
of the American flotilla that captured the sub, persuaded the Navy to turn the
sub over to the museum in 1954. It was dedicated that September as a monument
to the 55,000 U.S. sailors killed during World War II. Since then, the U-505
has been exposed to 24 million visitors and relentless weather that flakes so
much rust off the hull it's swept into deep brown piles.

Every 10 years
or so, the ship was sandblasted and repainted, its pine deck replaced and slathered
with tar, at a cost of $200,000 to $500,000 each time, Gill said. In parts,
sandblasting rust had blown away more than two-thirds of the quarter-inch-thick
hull plating, he said. Parts of the hull have had to be replaced. "We want
to keep as much of the original left as possible," Gill said.

Museum experts
believe the corrosion will stop once the sub is moved into its new home, where
the humidity and temperature will be regulated.

On Jan. 4, the
U-505 exhibit will be closed and preparations to move the submarine will begin.
Ground was broken last February for the sub's new home on the northeast corner
of the museum, where the 40-foot-deep, 300-foot-long hole looked Thursday like
an empty in-ground swimming pool. The new exhibition area will be finished over
the winter and connected to the main museum building via an underground tunnel,
said architect Leonard Koroski of Lohan Caprile Goettsch.

The ship will
be moved when weather breaks in mid-March or early-April, using specially designed
brackets wrapped around the U-505's keel and hull. Twenty-four jacks used for
lifting ship hulls will hoist the 700-ton craft from the concrete piers that
supported it for 49 years, then transfer the weight to motorized dollies. The
U-505 will then roll at a stately pace nearly 2,000 feet around the east side
of the museum building and then lowered over two days into its new home.

"It's going
to be like watching the grass grow," promised Ralph Di Caprio, vice president
of Norsar, the engineers moving the sub. The entire process will take six weeks,
of which four days will be the actual overland journey.

German
U-boat revitalizes Museum, attracts history buff. U-505 submarine, acquired
in 1954, travels to new underground exhibit to pull in crowds of community spectators

Chicago Maroon,
April 20, 2004. By Rachel Levine

Chicago Transit
Authority (CTA) may pale in comparison to the underground train systems of other
metropolises, but how many other cities can boast German U-boats in their basements?

On April 8, the
Museum of Science and Industry began moving its U-505 German submarine the 2000
feet from its outdoor location at the [east] side of the Museum campus to a
new underground exhibit space at the [northeast] end. Countless visitors, many
of them U of C students, have viewed the submarine since the the Museum acquired
it in 1954.

"The U-505
is a symbol of what the Museum does best," said David Mosena, Museum president
and CEO, in a November 13, 2003 press release. "We present unforgettable
educational experiences that are one-of-a-kind. But, most of all, the submarine
is an important part of our world history and a rare example of naval technology.
We are committed to its preservation for years to come."

The decision to
move the submarine underground is intended to protect it from damage from the
elements. The public, meanwhile, is invited to watch the submarine as it is
moved to its new home at the breakneck speed of approximately 14 inches per
hour.

Even though the
two-week process of moving of the submarine will continue until April 22, many
University students have already taken a trip to see the U-boat in motion. "[The
submarine] is one of my favorite exhibits at the museum," said Jane Shiu,
a first-year in the College. "It's not every day you get to see a submarine
moved. It's really cool how they're preserving it for others to see."

There are five
remaining German U-boats in the world. The four are in outdoor locations in
Germany and England.

The submarine
will be part of a new exhibit, scheduled to open in 2005, that will discuss
American involvement in World War II and the lives of soldiers living on a U-boat.
The museum projects that the exhibit will attract over 2 million visitors annually.
The new exhibit will include up-close views of many artifacts, including real
torpedoes, periscopes, German medals, binoculars, and cigarettes. Visitors will
also have the opportunity to squeeze into a recreation of a U-505 bunk.

Despite the fact
that the new exhibit will have a strong historical component, its appeal is
widespread. "Even though I'm not a history person, I think there's something
I could learn from it just by being there,said Patricia Tam, a first-year in
the College.

To move the submarine
the Museum hired NORSAR, an engineering firm specializing in transporting and
lifting large industrial and marine objects. "Our crews have mapped out
every angle and square foot that this sub will maneuver over the course of several
weeks," said NORSAR's vice president of operations Ralph DiCaprio in an
April 5, 2004 press release. "This is a sophisticated move that requires,
science, technology, and ingenuity."

The submarine
is 252 feet long, 37 feet wide, and it weighs 700 tons.

In addition to
moving the submarine, the Museum has gone to great lengths to restore it, using
photographs, paint chips, and veteran accounts to discover its original color.
"We are taking extraordinary efforts to restore and conserve the submarine
and make it part of a brand new visitor experience that will be a wonderful
mix of science, technology, and history," said Kurt Haunfelner, the Museum's
vice president of exhibits and collections in a press release.

The Museum first
announced plans to move the submarine in 1997, predicting that the project would
require $35 million. To date. over $24 million have been raised, more than 24
percent of which has some from 4,000 individual donors.

The Museum's submarine
was captured on June 4, 1944 off the coast of West Africa by US Naval Captain
Daniel Gallery of the USS Guadalcanal Task Force.

Film of the submarine's
engine was included in the movie "U-572" (2000), starring Matthew
McConaughey.

A
brief walk through the new exhibit before you go

Enter from the
east side of the Museum, starting with a visual-history tour of World
War II, focusing on the Atlantic Theater. Highlights
are 4 stations with video narrated by Bill Kurtis, murals by Richard
Moore, and a set of holograms.

U-505
then comes into view, first seen stern end-on. A
light display from below shimmers and simulates what it might be like to see
the Sub moving underwater. And this is the first time visitors have been able
to view the sub from deck level.

You then circle
around the sub and more interactive exhibits, crew biographies, and real
torpedoes or replicas including conning tower, periscope, sleeping
quarters, galley, records, personal items. (Yes, they offer to take
your pic in front of the sub, cost $15 and up.)

The main event,
of course, is a tour of the vessel at $5. Warning: quarters are extremely cramped
inside the sub, in places literally single file.

Views
and photo gallery

The following
photo gallery shows the submarine and part of its route and construction progress.
Later we hope to show the move. Of interest also is the photo showing the exposed
old (1920's) foundation of the Museum. Unfortunately, the wooden board mold
impressions do not show up.

First: view through
the c. 200-year-old oak grove north to the U-505. The sub will be pivoted to
the fence (which will come down), moved forward, then pointed east. Upon arrival
in the Columbia parking lot, the sub will be swiveled and backed southward,
then brought straight north until it passes the northeast edge of the Museum.
Then it will be rotated 90 degrees, moved west, then slung over the pit for
the new building and slid/dropped in. Then final buildout and roofing of the
exhibit structure begins.